


Let's meet Ille, my little crime daughter

by IAmAwesomeMe



Series: DinLuke slow burn but I also have an actual plot [5]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29685975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmAwesomeMe/pseuds/IAmAwesomeMe
Summary: Fill disclosure, there's not that much Luke in this Dinluke. It's important for the rest of the series.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Series: DinLuke slow burn but I also have an actual plot [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121021
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Let's meet Ille, my little crime daughter

Din landed the razor crest at the port that Mayfield specified.

“There he is,” Mayfeld said, walking over to greet the Mandalorian. His arms were outstretched to hug, but Din gave him a look of warning and he stopped. “Glad you could make it.”

“What’s the job?” Din asked, straight to the point.

“No talking, got it. It’s a frame job, sort of. Mostly a heist, though. I’ll catch you up as we go met another member of the team. You ok?” He looked at the shoulder suspiciously.

“I’m fine,” Din said. He really was. Luke’s healing helped a lot, but the thought of Luke was still too painful. His shoulder wasn’t, though. Din suspected he could take off the sling pretty soon. He rolled his shoulder a couple times, testing it out. Not quite there yet, but soon. They walked towards a cantina as Mayfeld explained the target.

There was an arms merchant who had gotten rich off selling weapons to the Empire. Despite being fairly high-ranking in the Empire, he evaded being sentenced by the court after the Empire fell because he technically only sold the weapons, never used them. He should not be held responsible for what people did with his product after he had sold it to them, his lawyer had argued. The courts let him go, they had more war criminals than ever before, and had better things to do than deal with someone who wasn’t even an Imperial officer, only friends with them.

He had schmoozed his way into a crime family, becoming the third highest ranking member there, and the highest non-family member. He had only moved up to third recently, after the pervious third-highest ranking member died under what everyone else believed to be normal circumstances but some younger members viewed as suspicious. They didn’t believe his alibi, and were convinced that he had killed him to get ahead. They hired Mayfield to see to it that he got the justice that he deserved.

The client didn’t just want the ex-Empire merchant to die, they wanted him to be punished for his crimes by the head of the family. They would steal a specific necklace that the head of the family held dear and plant it on the merchant. The necklace would be reported as stolen and the client would accuse the merchant and when his accusation is found to be true, he will be killed for crimes against the family.

“You’re going to need a pickpocket,” Din pointed out as they arrived at the cantina.

“Already got one,” Mayfeld informed him, going in and making his way threw the cantina to a room in the back.

“I’m pretty sure I know a better one,” Din told him. “She’s not from around here, she’s from Coruscant, but I can promise that getting her is worth it.” Maybe if Din found her some semi-reputable work, she would be less inclined to pickpocket random people. And causing the death of a high-ranking Imperialist is way more morally ok than theft.

“Your girl might be good, but I promise mine’s better.” They had arrived at the back room and Mayfeld opened the door to reveal-

“Ille,” Din greeted her.

Ille examined him, trying to place where she recognized the voice from. “Did I plant a lightsaber on you at some point?”

“You two know each other?” Mayfeld asked.

“She was the thief I was going to recommend you hire.”

“Small galaxy,” Mayfeld noted.

“You were going to recommend me? Aww.” She smiled wide.

“Just to get you out of the slums of Coruscant,” Din explained.

“Well, I got myself out,” she told him, proudly.

“Right. How did you do that exactly?” Din worried about her doing something even more illegal than what she was already doing.

“I swear, I never thought I would say this, but we don’t have time for small talk,” Mayfeld told them. “I’m also a little insulted you would small talk with her and not me.”

Ille shrugged. “Maybe people just like me better,” she joked. Din chuckled.

Mayfeld rolled his eyes. “You and Din are going to fly to this planet,” he said, writing down co-ordinates. “There, you will meet up with the cat-burglar and the client. He will give you the rest of the instructions.”

“Doesn’t the client usually stay away from these things?” Din asked.

“The client is already a pretty major player in a fairly reputable crime family. He told me he doesn’t care about remaining anonymous and wants to be the one giving you your instruction so he can check you guys out before hand. He’s also going to be the one to pay you, half before, half when the job’s done.”

Ille nodded. “Seems legit.”

Mayfeld nodded back. “Well then, you two should be off. I have another meeting in 15 for a different job.”

Din and Ille made their way to the door, but Ille stopped to quickly talk to Mayfield privately on her way out. “If you ever need another pickpocket, after this I mean,” she whispered, though Din could hear every word.

“You do good on this job; I promise you’re top off my list next time.”

“I’m not sure I want to be top of someone’s list when they’re so easy to pickpocket themselves,” Ille joked at regular volume once more, holding up Mayfield’s comm link as proof.

“Very funny,” Mayfeld said.

“I thought it was,” Ille said, tossing it back to him as she walked away.

Din and Ille started walking back to the ship. “How did you get here, exactly?”

“It’s a long story,” Ille said. “You sure you want to hear it?”

“I do,”

“Well, it all started back on Coruscant. I realized that I wanted more than this. I could be more than this. I wanted to get out, so I did. I didn’t have enough money for a ship or a ticket on a ship, so I made a deal. A bad deal, but it is what it is.”

“What was the deal?” Din was curious and more than a little concerned.

“These guys flew me to this fancy party on a middle-ring planet. I was supposed to rob these guys blind and then they would pay me my share and fly me to whatever planet I wanted so I can start my new life. However, they didn’t hold up their end of the deal. They took the money and left me stranded on that planet. I’ve been doing small jobs, just trying to make ends meet and making my way to the outer rim and my destination.”

“What’s your destination?” Din asked.

“Tatooine,” Ille said. “I’ve heard there are plenty of opportunities for someone like me.”

“I’m not so sure there’s as many opportunities as you think,” Din told her. It was a desert planet, pretty much everyone wanted to leave it.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I hear it’s the place to be.”

“You heard wrong,” Din told her firmly. “There’s nothing there, and you deserve better than that.”

Ille got slightly defensive at that. “I’m not so sure that’s for you to decide.”

Din had overstepped, a very rare occurrence for him. He silently cursed himself for being so foolish. He should not have done that. He shouldn’t have done a lot of things, recently. “Well, I’m sorry to hear about you getting screwed over like that,” he said, trying to repair the damage done.

Ille shrugged. “It all turned out in the end didn’t it? This job should set me up well. Plus, I get to see you again.” She smiled as they arrived at Din’s ship.

“We’re over here,” Din said, gesturing to it.

Ille gave the ship a once over, and laughed. “This is it!” she laughed again. “It’s a trash heap!”

“Okay,” Din said. “That’s enough of that.”

“It’s nuts and bolts held together by glue and a prayer,” she continued as they walked up the ramp onto his ship. “Is this a carbonite freezer?” she asked.

“Yeah. Don’t touch that, you’ll get carbonite burn,” he warned.

She quickly drew her hand back and continued walking around the ship. “Is that where you sleep?” she asked, looking at his tiny sleeping quarters.

“How about we don’t look in there.” Din closed the door.

“Wait a second,” Ille said, opening it back up. “What’s that?” She pointed the small hammock that Din had set up for Grogu in case he came back on the ship for a bit. He hadn’t used it yet, but Din still liked having it there so he can remember his son.

“That’s… not important,” Din said, closing the door again.

“No, it isn’t,” Ille said, opening the door again.

“Yes, it is.” He closed the door again. She opened it and he closed it once more. She opened it and he decided to give up the childish game. “Let’s just get going,” he said, climbing the ladder to the cockpit.

“Aye, aye, captain,” she said sarcastically. She took the seat behind Din and watched out the window as he started the flying sequence. As they took off and started to fly away, she looked out the window intently. She saw the buildings grow smaller and smaller and disappear as they flew into the clouds. Then they saw the top on the clouds, and those too grew smaller as they flew higher. They entered hyperspace and, with nothing better to entertain her, she turned back to Din. They remained there in pleasant silence, until Ille’s stomach rumbled.

“Are you ok?” Din asked, concerned.

“I’m fine,” she tried to brush of the issue, but Din persisted.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked. She thought about it for a second, and Din’s suspicions were confirmed. “If you have to think about it that much, it’s too long.”

“No, I had a quarter portion for dinner last night,” she objected.

“Did you eat anything else that day?” he asked. Her silence was answer enough. He sighed. “There’s portions in the cabin, in the cabinets along the left wall. You should go down, take anything you want.”

“No, I shouldn’t impose like that,” she tried.

“I insist,” he told her.

In the end, her hunger won out over her pride. “Fine, only a quarter portion, though.” She got up to go back below deck.

“Half, at least,” he corrected her as she disappeared down the ladder. He was concerned for her. She didn’t have anyone watching her back, making sure she was being looked after and cared for.

He heard her shuffling about, looking though the food cabinet. There were a few different kinds of portions in there, some having more meat or vegetable content than others. There was a sliding scale of prices, with the cheapest ones being very basic, giving you the nutrients, you need but not really much past that and very little flavor. Din hoped she would choose one with some actual flavor, though.

“I can have anything?” she asked.

“Yeah, anything.” Maybe she wouldn’t just pick the most basic option.

She got some water from the small tap and rehydrated part of the meal. The other parts she unloaded into a bowl. She brought her lunch/breakfast up to the cockpit so she could eat it with Din. He saw that she chosen a fairly basic half portion, but then spotted the other thing in her arms.

Ille spotted his slight discomfort with the sight. “I can have this, right?” She held up a sleeve of blue cookies.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he told her. “I just go them for my kid, that’s all.”

Ille smiled. “You have a kid?”

Din smiled as he remembered Grogu. “Yeah.”

“Is that what the tiny hammock is for?” Ille asked, starting to eat her dinner. Din nodded. “Where is he now?” she asked.

“You know the jedi that you met, Luke?” Ille nodded. “He’s training my son. That’s how we know each other.” Din didn’t know how close they were now, after everything that had happened between them.

Ille nodded, and continued to eat her meal, eying Din with suspicion. “Is that all?” she asked.

Din eyed her back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Are acquaintances all that you are?” she continued.

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

Ille shrugged. “It just seems like there’s more to the story then you’re letting on. You seemed really close when I saw you two on Coruscant.”

“Really?” Din asked.

“It almost seemed like you liked him.”

“Well, I didn’t.” Din turned back to focus on flying.

“It almost seemed like he liked you too.”

Din looked back at her, then turned back to his ship. He didn’t want to seem too desperate. “Is that so?”

Ille smiled. “Yeah, it is.”

Then Din remembered what happened. “It doesn’t matter,” he said darkly.

Ille raised an eyebrow. Clearly something had happened. Something bad. Something that caused Din to talk about Luke like he was just his son’s teacher and not the friend he was back at Coruscant. Still, she knew that she shouldn’t press the issue at the moment. She decided to switch topics. “Can I ask you a question?” she asked.

“What is it?” Din returned.

“It’s just, well, it’s been bugging me since Coruscant. I don’t want to offend, of course, but, well, I have to ask, well-”

“Spit it out,” he told her.

“Did you kill a jedi?” she asked.

Din paused. “Why would you ask that?”

“You have a lightsaber,” she explained. “I saw it on your belt when I put Luke’s on there as well. Those are Jedi weapons, and you aren’t a Jedi, so did you kill one?”

Din chuckled. “That lightsaber in particular in not a Jedi’s lightsaber. It belongs to the Mand’alor.” He turned back quickly. “Don’t steal it.”

“I won’t,” she said, holding up her hands in a mock surrender.

“I’m serious. Whoever holds that lightsaber rules Mandalore but it can only be passed on through hand-to-hand combat. Don’t pickpocket it. That will screw everything up beyond your wildest comprehension.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” she said, fully seriously and without an ounce of sarcasm. Din understood, she would joke about everything under the sun, but if you said something was serious, she would leave it alone.

“Good.” He turned back around, and they sat there in silence for a moment.

“Don’t you think it’s a touch sexist, though?” she said, seemingly out of no where, popping a chunk of rehydrated bread into her mouth.

Din turned back. “What’s sexist?”

“Mandalor. Like, you have a leader and you call him the _man_ -dalor? Why not the _woman_ -dalor?”

Din chuckled. “That’s… not how that works. In Mando’a, all names are gender-nutural. _Buir_ means father, mother, and parent, and you use it all the same. There have been many different Mand’alors, men, woman, and other. Besides, it’s not _man_ -dalor, it’s mand- _alor. Alor_ means leader or chief in Mando’a, so the Mand’alor means Leader of the Mandalorians, nothing to do with them being a man.”

Ille thought about it. “I guess I should be calling you Mand’o’leader then.”

Din laughed at that. “And I should be calling you _chakaar’ika_.”

“What does that mean?”

“Little thief,” Din explained.

“ _Chakaar’ika_ ,” Ille turned the word over in her mouth, and Din was impressed by her mostly correct pronunciation. “I like that.” She finished off her dinner and opened the sleep of cookies. She ate one, and offered it to Din. “Here, have one.”

“No thank you,” he responded.

Ille shrugged, taking the cookies back. She had a few more, about half the sleeve, then folded down the top. “I’m going to leave the rest for your kid, is that ok?”

“Yeah.” Din smiled at the idea of Ille and Grogu sharing the cookie pouch. Ille went back down, cleaned her dishes and put the cookies back where she found them.

“We’ll be there in 5 minutes,” Din called down to her.

“Cool,” she said, climbing back up. She didn’t want to miss them landing. She climbed onto her seat and pressed her face up against the glass.

Din wondered why she did that, but didn’t ask too many questions. They landed, and got out. “Mayfield told us that we will meet the contacts at a bar, just down the road.” He eyed Ille. “How old are you?”

“I’m not that young,” she said. “I’m practically an adult.”

“How old are you,” he repeated.

“I’m fifteen,” she said.

“If you think fifteen is an adult, you are, in fact, that young,” Din told her. “That’s technically too young to be in a bar.”

“For one, it’s not my first time in a bar,” she told him. “As long as you walk in with confidence, people leave you alone. And besides, no one wants to mess with a Mandalorian, so as long as you stand beside me all imposing and the like we will be fine.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. But, are you going to be alright?”

“Why would you say that?”

“The shoulder,” Ille pointed out. “Do you need to switch what side your pistol is on so you can still quick draw it?” Din considered that, but went another way. He took off the bandages and freed his arm. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Ille asked.

“Good? No. Good enough? Meh.” Din rotated his shoulder a few time to loosen it up, then practiced drawing his gun a few more times to make sure everything is ok. It was, so he started walking towards the bar.

“Wait up,” Ille said, running to keep up. As they walked through the village together, they turned some heads. Din was pretty sure he was the one turning heds as Mandalorians were a rare sight indeed. But then they did a double take when they saw Ille. It wasn’t everyday you saw a teenager being so comfortable around a Mandalorian, especially one so happy and joyful. The more people stared, the more Ille smiled and waved, making them uncomfortable and looking away feeling guilty for staring. Din couldn’t tell for sure, because Ille was a really good actor, but he suspected she did it on purpose. He couldn’t help but smile a bit.

They approached the bar and, sure enough, Ille walked in with a vague, almost bored look on her face and no one looked twice. They took a table and waited for their contact to meet them.

Din glanced around the bar once more. Apparently his first suspicion had ben incorrect, a lot of people were giving them second looks. There was a group of about half a dozen young men, all around 18 or 20, who kept glancing at him and Ille and whispering amongst themselves. But they weren’t the only ones, as guys across the bar were glancing up at them repeatedly.

“Who do you think the contact is?” Ille asked.

“9 o’clock,” he said. She glanced over. “See the young boys?”

They went silent as she looked over at them. She examined them a moment, then smiled. They talked amongst themselves excitedly. “Yeah, they are not the contacts.”

“How do you know?” he asked, but before she could answer one of them, the leader perhaps, started to walk over.

“Hey,” he said to Ille, once he had swaggered up to their table.

“Hey,” she said back. She was still acting fairly aloof, but there was a small smile that wouldn’t leave her face.

“Are you the contact?” Din came right out and asked it. He didn’t fully trust Ille’s belief that it wasn’t him.

“Umm, no,” he told Din, before turning back to Ille. “I’m Evan.”

“Ille.”

“Any chance a pretty girl like you could join me for a drink and some pleasant conversation?”

Ille smiled. It was less of a I-can’t-believe-this-cute-boy-likes-me kind of smile, and more of a I-told-you-so smile, clearly having been right about not only the fact that he wasn’t the contact, but also why he wasn’t. “No, I don’t think there is.”

“Not even a quick drink?”

“No, and as you can tell, we’re actually waiting for someone.”

“Any chance I can score the code on your holo-deck?”

“There isn’t.”

“Ahh, well. Nice meeting you I guess.” He walked away.

“Suuuure,” she said sarcastically. She went back to scanning the crowd.

Din was scanning the crowd too, observing just how many boys, young and not so young, were looking at Ille, sizing her up. Din stared down each and everyone of them, his hand going to cover the pistol on his hip.

Another man came up to them.

“No,” Din pointed his pistol at the man.

“I’m the contact,” he said, sitting down.

“Right,” Din put his pistol back in its holster.

“We’re still waiting for the last member of our team,” the contact said.

“I’m Ille,” Ille introduced herself.

“I’m Bak,” the contact said.

“I’m not giving you my name,” Din said to the stranger.

The contact nodded but Ille just smirked. “He’s not nearly as strong and silent as he pretends to be,” she reassured him. They fell into silence, but Ille didn’t much care for that. “So, how are you?” she asked Bak, trying to make small talk.

“What?” Bak was confused. The people he met tended not to make small talk, and if they did it wasn’t about their feelings.

“How are you,” she repeated. “Are you nervous?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“Are you scared you’ll get in trouble,” she asked.

“No, I don’t care about that,” he said.

“Interesting,” she said, welcoming him to expand on that answer.

“Thing is, Mart was like a father to me.”

“That’s the previous number three who was killed by the current number three,” she clarified.

“Right. See, my own father was always off doing jobs for the head of the family, Mart was the one who always stayed by me and watched me grow up. He gave me my first pistol, taught me how to shoot it, how to gamble, how to race. He was my father, in every way that counted.”

Din was amazed as Bak told this story. Not at the story itself, that was fairly standard, but at Ille’s ability to get anyone, literally anyone, to open up to her. It was a combination of being young enough to still believe in good, old enough to understand, caring enough to be companionate, and a general lack of judgment that meant it was really easy to talk to her, and that if you did talk to her, she would make you feel better.

“Then this new guy shows up,” Bak continued. “He charms the head and wins over most of the rest of the family. They let him in, even though it’s clear he doesn’t care for the family at all. He only wants to make money. That’s all bad enough but then he kills the one man who treated me well. No, this guy has to go.”

There was a certain amount of anger in his voice now, thinking about what this guy did. Din didn’t like working with angry people, he found they made too many rash decisions, though to be fair he didn’t like working with people in general. But Bak showed surprising restraint for a man as angry as he was, being able to cool himself down when he sensed he was getting too hot. Din admired that.

“You’re not worried they’ll find out it was you?” Ille asked.

“No, I’m not,” Bak said, firmly. “I don’t regret this, and if they ask me straight out I’ll tell them as much. If this is what brings me down, at least it was something I believed in.” Then Bak realized what he was saying. “Not that I want to go down for this,” he quickly added. “I still want you guys to do your best on this job. You sure you can fight if things get rough?” he asked Din.

“I can always fight,” Din responded.

“And you, are you as good a pick pocket as they say?”

“What do you want, a demonstration?” Ille asked.

Bak considered it. “Yes, actually.”

Din smiled underneath his helmet. This was going to be good.

“Well, see, it’s hard to steal from you when you know I’m going to steal from you,” she said. “I’m sorry, I just can’t.” Bak’s shoulder’s slumped. “Plus, I’ve already taken all this stuff.” She gestured in front of her.

Bak’s wallet, rings, watch, gold chain and the key fob to his ship had all appeared on the table in front of them. Neither he nor Din had noticed as she stole each item, nor had they noticed her placing them on the table for everyone to see.

Bak laughed as he put back on everything she stole. “That’s was good. You’re good.”

Ille smiled. “Thanks.”

“Waitress,” Bak called her over. “Three shots for the table, to celebrate.”

“Make that two,” Din told her, not wanting to celebrate.

“Make that four,” Ille told her, wanting to celebrate a lot.

“Make that one,” Din told her, with a small warning in his voice for Ille.

“Make that two,” Ille told her, her shoulders slumping as she finally agreed with Din.

“Two it is,” the waitress said, walking away.

While they waited for their drinks, the last member of their party arrived. Bak started to go over the plan. The entire compound was very heavily monitored. But there were a few blindspots that they would use. The cat-burglar would steal the jewel, a necklace that belonged to the original head of the family. She would take it to a specific bathroom and would place it in a small mouse cleaning droid that would take it to where Din was waiting for it in another blindspot. He would walk it to Ille who would plant it on the target.

Halfway through the debrief, their shots arrived. Din observed Ille as she took the shot. She wasn’t unfamiliar with the taste of alcohol, but wasn’t particularly familiar with it either. Din suspected that she would have been exposed to it, living in the slums of Coruscant, but he also began to suspect that she never sought it out either. She was a good kid, with a good head on her shoulders.

Bak passed Ille a photo of her target. She would have the most dangerous part of this, being the one to actually get close to him. “It would be ideal if he didn’t ever see your face,” Din told her. He knew she had a tendency towards the dramatic and showman but that wouldn’t be good if she was dealing with someone as dangerous as her target is.

“I know,” she said, somewhat disappointed but knew that Din was right.

“I don’t know where the target will be exactly, so you might need to look around for a bit. He’s usually either in the courtyard or the bar, talking with the heads of the family. When the job is done, everyone will meet at the Mandalorian’s shuttle. We will rendezvous back here at the end of the job, where I will give you the rest of your payment. Any questions?”

“While we’re doing all this,” Ille asked, “where will you be?”

“I’m going to take my speeder to the compound, they need to see me arrive alone,” he explained. “I need them to see me while the object is being planted to remain somewhat innocent. After I see you plant it, I will ask if everyone wants to go have drinks back at the office, and the second we walk in everyone will see that the necklace is gone. I will accuse the target of always wanting to sell it, he’s well known for talking about how expensive it is and what a shame it’s just siting behind glass. They will search him, and then they will kill him.” He stopped, and sized Ille up. “You know what you’re taking part in, right? You know what’s going to happen?”

“I know.” Her voice was solid, unwavering. It didn’t betray fear, or anger, or any emotion.

“If you don’t think you can handle something like this, you should get out now.”

“If I couldn’t handle something like this, I should have gotten out a long time ago. I’m a lot more used to this than people tend to think.”

Bak nodded, and an understanding moved between them. An understanding of being a young kid when they got into this life, but then again of never really being a kid at all. Of being born with half your decisions already made for you. Of absent fathers. Of being born onto a battlefield, fighting in a war you never wanted, with people you never wanted to be beside.

But Din guessed that Ille never had a well-meaning uncle to look out for her.

Bak paid them their half up front and everyone made their way to Din’s razor crest. Ille and the cat-burglar stayed below deck as Din piloted the ship towards the compound. Knowing Ille, they would be sharing friendship bracelets before they landed.

When they arrived, they split up. Every month the family held a gambling tournament that was also a recruitment opportunity so the three of them fit right in with the crowd. The cat-burglar went off to do her part, giving a small wave to Ille as she left. Din was right, they were friends already.

“You should go too,” Ille said.

“Stay safe,” Din told her.

“I always am,” she returned.

He went to do his part. He didn’t like droids too much, but mouse droids were small and feeble so he didn’t mind them much. He took the necklace, and went back to find Ille. She was in the courtyard, watching a hand of poker play out. There were multiple tables set up, but only one was being used. Clearly, it was in the final round of the tournament.

“He should fold,” she said to herself.

“Who should?” Din asked, making his presence known.

“Far end,” Ille pointed out. “He thinks that the center guy is bluffing but he’s not. He has a clear tell, but he knows it. I’m willing to bet he got a really good hand and did the tell to try and get as much money as possible.”

Din watched the hand play out. The third person at the table folded, probably thinking something similar to Ille. It was down to just the two in question.

“Do you have it?” Ille asked.

“Yeah.”

“What pocket? I’ll pick it off you.”

“Back left,” Din said.

Ille turned behind and gave him a hug, picking the necklace in the progress. She slipped it into her own pocket and pulled away. “Got it.”

They turned their attention back to the poker game. The antes were rising higher and higher. Another card was turned over. They were in the final round of betting, and the player on the far end hesitated. It was catching up to him, how much he had bet. Then he looked over at the other player, who kept his eyes focused on his cards as he bit the corner of his lip.

“That’s the tell,” Ille pointed out. It was masterfully done, making it seem as if he didn’t know that his opponent was looking at him. He even bit the side of his lip opposite his opponent so it wouldn’t seem like he was doing it for him. His opponent took the bait, upping the ante even further.

“Do you know where your target is?” Din said.

Ille pointed to a sort of VIP area. Her target was watching the game intently. “From what I can see, his sponsoring the guy with the fake tell. Up there, I can’t get at him. But when his guy wins-”

“Not if?” Din asked.

“Not if,” Ille confirmed. “He’s going to take out the guy at the far end this round, then he’s going to have enough money to force a fold on the last guy if not next round, the one after. When he wins his sponsor will come down and congratulate him along with half the people here. I’ll be able to slip in with the crowd effortlessly.”

Din nodded. “Solid plan.”

Ille nodded too. “I know.”

They continued watching the game. The guy at the far end went all in. So did the fake tell guy. They reveled their cards and sure enough, the fake-tell guy had pocket kings. The crowd cheered. The far end guy got up and left with surprising dignity, more dignity than Din thought he would, but he could tell that he was internally kicking himself.

They paused the game for a second as they rearranged all the chips that were tossed into the center so they were in neat stacks in front of their new owner. The other player was nervous now, and ordered another drink.

“She could still make it up,” Ille said. “It’s a big difference but she could do it. She just has to keep her head on and not freak out.”

Wise words, but words that were not headed. Sensing the pressure was on, she made some mistakes, folding when she should have stayed in the game. He ended up beating her in three rounds.

The crowd cheered, and the target descended to congratulate his champion. “You should get going,” Ille told him. “You shouldn’t be here when I make the drop.”

“I’m staying to make sure you’re safe,” he said. “That’s my job isn’t it?”

“Suit yourself.” She descended into the crowd, smiling like everyone else. She went up and shook the champion’s hand, along with everyone else. Then tripped, and on her way down collided into her target. His bodyguard helped her to her feet, as the target completely ignored her, distracted by the festivities around his champion. She smiled and batted her eyes at the bodyguard who saw that she wasn’t a threat and let her go. He might remember her face, but the target wouldn’t. And they would be long gone before he could have a chance to identify her. Satisfied, he made his way back to the ship.

The cat burglar was already waiting on the ship when Din arrived. They waited in silence for young Ille to return. When she did, Din went up to the cockpit to start the ship and bring them back to the town they had come from. Ille took a seat on the ledge/workbench that on his previous ship held the corpse of the droid that tried to kill his kid. On this one, he hadn’t put anything yet so Ille climbed up on it and used it as a seat. Her legs swung below her. She looked comfortable like that. Natural.

They pulled up to the town and walked back to the bar. Just Din and the cat-burglar would have been imposing, but with Ille with them they didn’t. She was smiling, saying hello to everyone they saw.

“That went well, didn’t it?” she asked, bouncing up and down with excitement.

“If you want to make it in the underworld, you should work on keeping cool,” Din told her.

“Bah,” she dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “I can be a good pickpocket and still express emotion. One does not negate the other. I am happy, and I intend to show the world.”

Din smiled softly under his helmet. He was glad to see that at least some of her was still a kid.

They met up with their client and received the rest of their money. “Good job,” Bak told Ille. “You could have a bright future in my family if you wanted one.”

Din eyed Ille nervously. “Thanks, but I think I’m alright.”

Good girl, Din thought. These families are tricky businesses. If they want you, they will make you a really good offer but if you want out, it’s almost impossible. Ille as right not to accept their offer. Bak nodded, and went on his way. The cat burglar went her own way too. Ille and Din were alone.

“Let me fly you somewhere,” Din offered.

“Where?” Ille asked.

“Anywhere,” Din said. “That was your deal with the guys that got you off Coruscant, they would drive you to the planet of your choice. They didn’t so let me.”

Ille considered it. “Even if I want to go to Tatooine?”

Din sighed. “I don’t know what opportunities you think you’ll find on there but it’s seriously just a pile of rocks.”

“I’m confident my info is good,” she said, very self-assured.

“Fine, Tatooine it is.” They left the bar and made their way back to the ship.

As they flew, Ille couldn’t help asking a question that had been plaguing her mind. “Din,” she started.

“Yeah?”

“What’s going between you and Luke?”

Din grew silent. “Nothing.”

“That was a very loaded ‘nothing,’” Ille pointed out. “C’mon, you can tell me.”

Din hesitated. “I don’t… I can’t… No.”

“That’s a very loaded ‘no,’” she continued. “Look, I don’t know what happened but if it’s feeling things I can help. I’m good with feelings.”

Din sighed. “It’s not as simple as that.” He tried to explain, but couldn’t find the words.

“Just say what happened, from the start.” Ille spoke calmy and caringly, and Din knew two things. First, she wasn’t going to leave this alone. Second, if there was anyone he could open up to, it would be Ille. He acknowledged that this is exactly what everyone else thought, but that didn’t make it wrong.

“We… We kissed.”

Ille tried her best to hid her excitement, biting her tongue and trying to control herself. “Did you now?” She tried to speak with a level voice, but couldn’t contain herself. “Well, I, for one, think this is wonderful. I knew you two liked each other.”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Din told her, swirling around in his chair to face her. The ship was in lightspeed so it was basically on auto-pilot. “He wanted to…” Din wasn’t sure how to put this. Ille was a child, and in Mandalorian culture you didn’t talk about sex with kids. At all. Mandalorians believed robust in sex education, but not discussing the specifics of an adult’s sex life with a child. Though technically speaking nothing happened, Din wasn’t sure whether it was okay to talk about this with her.

“Have sex,” Ille finished his sentence. Din was taken aback, but Ille dismissed his concerns. “Please, there were three prostitutes living in my hallway back on Coruscant. There really isn’t anything you can tell me that I haven’t heard before.”

“Okay, we are going to circle back to that whole situation later,” Din started.

“Please, they were lovely girls,” Ille interrupted.

“Regardless,” Din continued. “Yes, he did.”

“So, you guys had sex?” Ille clarified.

“No, we didn’t,” Din said. “He wanted to. He- He took of his shirt.”

“And?”

“And then he told me so.”

“Told you what?”

“That he wanted to.”

Ille was confused. “Okay, so you kissed, he took off his shift, said he wanted to have sex, and then…”

“I left.”

“You left?”

“I left.” Din didn’t understand what Ille wasn’t getting.

“I don’t get it,” Ille said. “Like, what’s so bad about that?” Din didn’t know how to answer that. “Okay, reframing the question. Why did you leave?”

“Well,” Din didn’t know what to say.

“Were you angry with Luke?” Din shook his head. “Scared.” No again. “Did you think Luke was rude?”

“Not exactly,” Din said. “It’s more like…”

“Were you offended?” Ille asked. Din nodded. “Why were you offended?”

“Mandalorian culture,” Din explained. “You don’t do things like that.” Ille nodded. She expected him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“Three things,” Ille said. “First, I just want to make sure you recognize that your feelings are valid.” Din looked up at her, confused. “Sometimes, when things get complicated we forget that whatever we are feeling is completely natural, so I just want to remind you of that.” Ille put a comforting hand on Din’s shoulder. “Second of all, I also need you to recognize that Luke might not know about all that. Like, he might not know about what is and isn’t taboo in Mandalorian culture. So, remember to cut him some slack. And thirdly, this is more of a question than anything else.” She looked Din in the eye and she spoke. “Do you want to be with Luke?”

Din considered the question. Did he? I meant, he wanted to kiss Luke. And spend time with Luke. And go on dates and talk with and be with. But there was a difference between _being_ with Luke and being _with_ Luke. Did he want to call Luke sweetheart and for Luke to call him boyfriend and to sleep beside him every night. Yes, Din concluded. But did he want to have sex with Luke? Not particularly. I mean, he wasn’t opposed to the idea. It’s just that when he plans out his perfect relationship with Luke sex just isn’t a part of it. But it was for Luke. And any relationship with Luke would have to include it.

“I don’t know,” Din concluded, his head in his hands.

“Well, figure it out. If it is, make it happen. And if it isn’t, well, you have your son to think of so just… let him down easy.”

“Let him down?”

“Luke,” Ille clarified. “I mean, he likes you. He wants to be with you. You know that, right?”

He did now. And regardless of everything else, he couldn’t help smile a bit.

They flew into Peli Motto’s garage. He didn’t know much about Tatooine’s supposedly boundless job prospects but he knew that having someone to look out for Ille would be good.

Peli was somewhat disappointed that Din’s son wasn’t with him. But she liked Ille well enough, just like everyone else.

“I don’t have much work for her around here, though.” She told Din as they talked privately. Ille was getting to know the droids around Peli’s shop. Somehow even droids liked her.

“That’s fine, just make sure she’s okay. Get her a room nearby and check up on her every once and a while.”

Peli agreed to it, and Din went to say goodbye to Ille. “Well, here you are.”

“Thanks Mr. Mand’a’leader,” Ille said.

“Take care of yourself, _chakaar’ika_ ,” Din told her.

“I always do,” she told him.

“See you around.”

“Please, you’ll never see me again.” She smiled up at him. He turned to go away, but hesitated.

“You know that’s not true,” Din said, turning back to face her. “I come through here every so often, I’m going to see you again.”

“I know,” Ille said.

“Good,” Din said. They nodded at each other, an understanding passing between them. With that settled, he turned and left.


End file.
